FINCHforum

When breeding canaries I was wondering if most people leave the pair together for the full cycle of rearing babies? Or do you put your male in and pull him back out after the eggs have been laid? I have only one pair right now and she is on eggs so I will be keeping them together. I do also know some people who pull the male back out and the hen raises the clutch on her own. Is one method better then the other? The only benefit I could see from pulling the male is if you had another female ready to breed so you have a stud canary. I was wondering what people had the most success with.

When breeding canaries there are many different methods some work and some don't work as well. There are reasons why some people will breed them a certain way compared to another breeder. I leave my males with my hens I find this way a little easier on the hen and possibly get a third clutch than the usual two. I have also stud bred before and yes a hen will raise the chicks. Both methods work fine and have their benefits. Stud breeding is a method done a lot by show breeders, they use on male which is of a high specimen and breed him with multiple females which have quality traits also to produce young which will hopefully have a great chance at a show while leaving pairs together is mostly done by people who wish to breed for fun than anything else such as myself. There are times when pulling the male out is done due to he's to pushy towards the hen by attacking her or the eggs/young so in this case the male will need to be gone and if there is a spare hen then you may let him make her go to nest. Try different methods and see which one suits you and your birds.

Whenever possible, I've always tried to let two parents raise the clutch of chicks. It can't be anything but beneficial in giving the chicks a healthy start, to have two feeding parents as opposed to one. ESPECIALLY in canaries where it is usually the male who provides the majority of the food. A hen becomes depleted just from the process of egg laying, so being the sole food provider can't be too good for her either.
There are occasions when I've had to remove the male due to fighting and the hens did just fine in rearing the clutch, but it isn't something I would make a practice of. JMO Bob

thanks for the info i would think you would have a little more success if you had two parents raising the chicks. i can also see if you have a prize male the more chicks with his jeans i guess the better. i am just wanting to get into canaries i have one pair on eggs right now i just candled them today i have one egg out of four that is fertile is best to remove the other eggs or leave them in the basket?

Leave the infertile eggs in the nest for a while. They help to retain heat and provide stabilization for newly hatched chicks. Bob

ok thanks

Hey Snow Finch,

i hope your egg hatched and baby is doing fine.

i recently got a pair of canaries and they mated. i kept the male with the female, they got along great until the babies reached the age of about 5-6days. the hen then started attacking the male whenever he tried to feed them. so i had to separate them for about a week until the babies got older and she felt safe again.
So a single bird can handle it. you might need to assist with the feeding if it is a big clutch (thats what i did).